Melbourne Pettys

Marion travels to Queensland, Carmen gets another job and turns seventeen, Ellen and Dylan attend General Conference, the family visits New Zealand.

In the first week of the month Marion travelled to Queensland and stayed with Auntie Kaye and went to a few jobs interviews, she and Ellen have some plans about moving up there. That was also the last week of the school holidays and our Ward had a young mens camp at Walhalla. Austin went along and had a good time. The plan was to walk the Mormon town track but it turned really cold and raining heavily so they headed home.

Carmen had her first shift at Subway in Northcote on the Wednesday the tenth. She has a friend that works there and the owner is Marion’s old boss. She had another shift on the Friday for a few hours, she just goes up there after school. She also still works a few Saturday shifts at the Video store.

We showed the General Conference sessions over the weekend of the thirteenth and fourteenth. Marion came to the first Saturday session then Calvin and Austin came to Priesthood. We were looking for Ellen and Dylan in the crowd. They had sent us a message the week before to tell us that President Monson had changed the age for mission to eighteen for boys and nineteen for girls, everyone is pretty excited. The next day we all went to both sessions, if was a beautiful sunny warm day. When we got home we talked to Ellen and Dylan, they were staying at the Brayton’s place.

Ellen and Dylan in Transit 19th Oct 2012

Ellen and Dylan come back from USA on the Friday morning of the ninetieth. Then left with the rest of the family other than Carmen and I, that night to go the New Zealand. Carmen had school exams and I was happy to stay back with her and save some money. The next day was Carmen’s seventieth birthday. I treated her by taking her to Bunnings and buying some gardening stuff. We also bought some nice drinks to put in the fridge. Later I took her to her basketball game and stayed to watch, some I haven’t done in some time. That evening we went to Highpoint where we met Janet for dinner and a movie. We also bumped into Des and Jacqui from work, I sit next to Jacky at my work and Janet sits next to Des at hers.

It was a very quite week while most of the family were away. To make it even quieter Carmen worked three shifts at Subway on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. She went there straight from school then I would pick her up after ten. Vern called one evening from New Zealand so I had a nice chat with her about their adventures. They all managed to eat something off at the unveiling so were laid low for a bit.   

Saturday the twenty-seventh I watched Carmen’s basketball final which they won. Bishop Williams daughter is in the team so he coached in Vernice’s absence. That evening Carmen and I went out to the Mosikto Bar for dinner and then picked up a DVD from her DVD store.

The next day was a busy one for me, it started with Priesthood Leadership in the morning that I conducted and then took the High Priests and Elders for their session. I then went home and picked up Carmen and headed for Eltham as I had to speak at the sacrament meeting there. Only stayed there for Sunday School since I had to return to Fairfield since Janet and Kimmy had asked me to speak at their baptism. It all went well and then in the evening I took Carmen down to the youth fireside at Wantirna so see could see all her friends that she made in EFY. That evening Danielle and Chris Bryers came over and we all went out to the Airport to pick up the gang. Chris had just come back from his mission in South Africa so they were all surprised to see him.

Dylan started his new job finishing swimming pools with the White family down the other side of town on the last day of the month. He will stay there during the week and come home on the weekends.